News Blog

Listen: This American Life Talks Mendo's Pot Program

If you missed the latest episode of This American Life, the fantastic, award-winning public radio program broadcast locally on KHSU, then you've yet to hear reporter Mary Cudddehe's take on Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman and his ill-fated attempt to bring sanity to medical marijuana regulation.

As you may recall, Allman came up with Mendocino County's pioneering zip-tie program, which allowed his department to keep tabs on state-law-abiding growers while generating income to fight large-scale, industrial grow ops. The program worked so well that other counties, including Humboldt, were looking to imitate it -- until the feds raided Northstone Organics, a poster child for the endeavor.

The episode is titled "I Was Just Trying to Help," and you can listen to Cuddehe's report below.